


Play this game of pretend

by EnderSquid



Category: DSMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Arachnid Schlatt, Avian Tommy, Blazeborn Jack, Dream World, Elytrian Phil, Enderian Ranboo, Merling Niki, Nukes, Parent Sam | Awesamdude, Phantom Wilbur, PowersSMP, Shulker Tubbo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29456556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnderSquid/pseuds/EnderSquid
Summary: Tommy loved the world he created more than the world he lived in.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 118





	Play this game of pretend

Tommy woke up to the smell of fresh air filling his nostrils and the shouting of the various other hybrids playing below his little home, shouting about random things that Tommy couldn’t hear.  
His mind was filled with sounds of explosions and screaming.

He sat up in his red bed and looked around, rubbing his head as he yawned, smiling as he heard Wilbur screeching from the sunlight hitting him.  
This was always home.

Tommy looked out the hole in his home and saw Niki laughing as Wilbur dove into the water, Ranboo and Jack moving back as the water splashed at them.  
Tommy felt a warm feeling in his chest as he saw his family below having fun.  
He could even just see his just smaller friend Tubbo, a Shulker that was just as tall as a block, maybe a bit smaller.  
He was resting in his box.

Tommy spread his arms and felt his feathers brush against his skin as he jumped from his spot in his floating home, a few birds flying around the cobblestone tower that connected to it for the others.  
Besides Phil.

Speaking of the man, Phil was just circling Tommy’s home as he began floating down to the ground, waving at Tommy as he passed. Tommy felt a small pit of Envy growing in his stomach, but it quickly went away as he began to near the ground, moving to avoid the lake and land in the soft grass that always was so green.  
Always so warm

Tommy felt his feet hit the ground, and he was hit immediately by greetings from the other hybrids in the haven.  
“Good morning Chickeninnit!”  
“Hello, Tommy!”

Tommy smiled as the others began to talk, Wilbur still submerged in the lake as to not become burned by the sun that would always hurt him, unless he decided to go all ghost.

Phil landed shortly after Tommy, getting the same greetings from everyone when he arrived.

“Where’s fragrance Man?” Tommy questioned, looking around for the arachnid as his mind grew clearer from the sleep that once clouded it just minutes earlier.

Tubbo turned towards Tommy and smiled at him, “he's off creating new scents.”

Fragrance man was a persona that Schlatt, an arachnid that was the newest member of the family in the haven, being made as a joke after Schlatt wouldn't stop sniffing everything he saw.  
He was probably just sleeping.

Niki swam around the group, smiling as she picked up rocks from the bottom of the lake, collecting them in her arms and placing them in her pouch-like any good merling usually did.  
Niki always loved to collect shiny rocks and minerals.  
As did Tommy and Phil.  
Same as how Ranboo loved picking up blocks, or how Wilbur would bite the sleep-deprived. Or Tubbo being unknowingly protective of Phil. Or Jack being attracted to fire.  
It was just who they were.

And they were all fine with that.

Tommy pulled a piece of bread from his inventory, following everyone else as they also began to pull out fold and begin to eat it for that day's breakfast.  
This was a life he always wanted to live.

Tommy felt something rumbling in the back of his mind, but he promptly ignored it as he ate his bread, feeling it dissolve in his mouth as he chewed.  
Bread.

“So anyway.....I've been planning on going back to the nether to collect some stuff, do any of you want to come.” Jack watched as all but Niki’s hand went up, along with Phil, but he may as well have been.

Niki couldn't leave the water and water immediately evaporated in the nether.  
She wouldn't be going today.

Phil smiled, finishing up an apple he was eating, “I’ve been trying to get to building a portal, now I can have a reason.”

“I’ve always wanted to make drugs...” Everyone paused to look at Wilbur, and Tommy felt his chest tighten at the thought of Wilbur making drugs, just the thought made his chest ache with horrible pain.

Wilbur looked around and shrugged, “by that I mean potions.” everyone nodded and made noises of acknowledgment, but the pain in Tommy’s chest never quite left as he stood still, feeling the others pass him as they followed Phil to wherever he had been building the nether portal.  
Aside from Niki.

“Tommy?” Tommy quickly snapped back into reality at Niki’s voice, feeling her soft and melodic merling voice echo in his head and chest, calming him down as she continued to talk, “are you alright?”  
Tommy nodded, shaking his head slightly, “I’m a big man Niki, I'm fine.” Niki nodded and returned to swimming in the water.  
“Would you like us to get you anything in the nether?” Niki paused again and looked yo at Tommy with hopeful eyes.

“A wither skull....to decorate my lagoon...” Tommy nodded, smiling as he began to run to catch up with the others, “No problem Niki.”

Two hours later they finally entered the nether, entering into the red and hot wasteland, lava lighting up their figures as they walked into the place that always seemed like legend until Tommy had gone and saved Jack from the place.

Ghats floated around, ignoring the group mainly to focus more on just floating around and seeming calm.

“Does everyone have Gold?” Tommy opened his inventory as Phil spoke and saw the fifteen gold that he had stacked in the area, and looking at the others, he could see their gold.  
They also all wore golden armour.  
Even Tubbo who seemed to only like iron armour.

The group began walking, creating a path over the ocean of lava that bubbled and burst beneath them.

Phil flew ahead, making a clear and safe path for the group so that they wouldn't be attacked by any hordes of mobs or hunters that would traverse the nether.

Tommy wished he could fly ahead with Phil, but he was happy with just floating everywhere, gliding into safer spaces that the others could never reach.

Striders walked beneath them as they crossed onto solid ground again, passing over their bridge that they would no doubt use much more in the future.

They passed piglins and various other mobs, Tubbo even trying to tame a strider before he was pulled away by Wilbur.

Tommy paused for a second to look at a black rose in a pot that seemed to call to him, leaving him open to attacks as he became mesmerized by the black rose.  
And he was suddenly somewhere different.

He looked overhead to see various paths of wood and stone towering over him, mocking him on the ground and threatening him with how high and mighty they seemed to be.  
And Tommy began to tower up to a cobblestone path.

Tommy felt fear grow in his chest as he grew closer and closer to the path and saw more and more paths becoming noticeable from where he was going up.  
And soon he was standing on the path.  
Not far away was a nether portal with two people standing outside of it.

One looked like a piglin, while the other had feathery wings like him, but they were placed like the buggy wings of the elytra.  
Who were these strange people?

Tommy stood on the path, watching the two as they talked, staying close to the edge if he ever had to escape and would just float down to the black rose.  
Right?

Tommy felt sweat building upon his forehead as the two continued to talk, not noticing the young avian as he stood in that place on the cobblestone bridge.  
Then he started noticing features on the winged man.

He wore a green and white bucket hat, not too peculiar.  
He wore a green cloak that had room for his wings.  
He wore a red heart necklace.  
That red heart necklace was the same one Phil had.

Phil had told him it was because he beat bad people and mobs, and little Tommy was taken aback from surprise, then he ran to His brother and began to shout about how dad was a superhero.

Tommy took another step back, a few rocks tumbling into the lava below.

He gulped as the conversation stopped and the winged man entered the portal, leaving the piglin behind.

That's when he was noticed.

The piglin looked towards him, and Tommy took his perhaps one last chance to jump over the edge of the pathway, feeling himself gliding down to the ground, hearing shouting from above him as he glided back to where the rose was.

The voice silenced and Tommy landed, stumbling up to the rose and staring it down, hoping that it would bring him back to his family.  
Back to home.

“Tommy?” and there Jack was.

“Jack?” Tommy looked up to Jack then back down at the black rose, feeling the urge to tear the plant to pieces right there.  
“This seems like nice decoration.” Jack picked up the rose and smiled. Tommy forced a smile back.

Tommy could just hear screaming and crying in the corner of his mind, hearing begging from voices he didn't recognize.

They did end up getting a wither skull for Niki, and she seemed pleased when she added it to her collection of the many things that they had gotten her.  
Schlatt was there now, resting in a tree, munching on a piece of raw steak that he got from who knows where.

Phil and Wilbur left for their homes to brew some potions/drugs with the supplies they had gained from the nether.

The others stayed at the lake like they always did on these kinds of days.

Jack showed off a few pieces of crying obsidian he had gained from a few piglins.  
Tubbo just had a few pieces of netherite he had found, planning on making some weapons with the mineral.  
Ranboo had managed to kill a few ghasts.

Tommy had the experience of the rose.

And he didn't like it like the others liked their experiences in the nether.

The others happily chatted as Tommy left back to his little home in the clouds, climbing up the ladder towards the home that he has worked so hard just to make it feel like home.  
Tommy had the hairs on his back standing up after that encounter.  
He almost wanted to go back and meet whoever that piglin was.

But he also felt as though a pit was cracking him open at the thought of going back to wherever that place was.  
It seemed homey, but also like it meant harm to him.

Tommy must have sat for hours thinking about the man and the piglin, running through the possibilities of the rose being there and only him noticing it.  
Screams sounded on his head again, making him grab at his head as he tried to drown out the terrible noise from his ears.

He needed to go back, whether it killed him or not.

Tommy left quickly that night, just avoiding Wilbur as he looked over the small settlement that Phil had made when they are younger.  
Home.  
The only place he ever knew as home.

And now he stared at the purple swirls of the nether portal, hearing the shouting grew louder as he began to enter the portal, feeling it grab at him and pull him into the heat of the nether.  
It suffocated him as he entered.

He could just see his tower from earlier starting at him in the distance, mocking his cowardice.

And at the bottom of the tower was the piglin.  
Starting at him.

But he was more monochromic like it was just Tommy’s mind playing a sick prank on him.  
Maybe it was.

Tommy began to cross the bridge, and the piglin disappeared, and a boy that looked shockingly like Tubbo now stated down from the pathway above.  
Tommy towered up again.

The path seemed more unsteady and unstable as he walked over it this time, following the Tubbo imposter towards the nether portal.  
Towards where the imposter considered home.

And Tommy followed him through the portal, feeling the portal swirl and consume him as he travelled through it.

It was cold.

Very cold.

Tommy stepped out onto a platform, seeing various buildings in the distance that made it seem like he had just entered a whole new world.

And he kept following the Tubbo Imposter.

They walked past a ruined building that looked to be being fixed, then started along a wooden path, and small dings began to enter his mind, along with the sounds of torment.

They passed by many buildings before the phantom took a turn, passing a dirt house that looked familiar to Tommy, but they quickly passed it.  
And then they came into a world of destruction.

Tommy gasped as he saw a huge crater, along with various destroyed homes and builds, blood staining the crater brown and red.  
Tommy shook his head as he surveyed the destruction.

Whoever did this was a horrible person.

The phantom Tubbo stood next to him, staring at the crater with a sad expression.  
“Do you know home?”

Tommy smiled and nodded.

Sam screamed above him as Tommy felt his body becoming weaker, the blast from the nuke leaving holes and tears all along his body.

Puffy screamed orders at people as they all rushed around, but Tommy felt his vision going blurry as he reached a hand out to where Sam was.  
“d.....aaa.....d?” Sam sat down next to Tommy, resting the boy's head in his lap as his ears rang from the nuke.  
“It's okay Tommy....you’ll be okay.” Sam pushed some hair away from Tommy’s gashed and slashed forehead, the blood already seeping into the golden locks.  
There was blood everywhere.

Tommy felt his chest tighten as a surge of pain warned over him, seizing him up as he screamed out in pain, releasing a deep and scratchy record rather than any human sound.  
Sam rubbed his head as the boy bled out, no healing or regeneration potions doing the trick to save the boy from his inevitable fate.

More screaming came from around, along with footsteps that sounded right near Tommy.

“Phil...Techno, I suggest you two leave..” Puffy kneeled next to Tommy, resting a hand on his chest as his breathing became laboured.  
“Please...just let me see my son..” Puffy shook her head and moved over, Phil taking her spot to look down at his son.  
“Oh Tommy...”

Tommy smiled up at Phil, just remembering the world that would be waiting for him when he finally left this server, being a happy family with the family he had created there.

Tommy couldn't hear any more as all noise faded out.

And soon he couldn't see.

He could fear teardrops hitting his blood-stained face.

And then he was gone.

One moment and then he was gone.

Tommy woke up in his little home again, feeling the feathers of an Avian on his arms.  
Everyone was gathered in his room, smiling sadly down at the boy.

“Welcome to your new home Tommy.”


End file.
